New Year's Resolution - Again

Well, here it is again - The new year.  2012 instead of 2011.  This is a repost of lasts year's new year's resolutions entitled Making Mistakes.  As I was rereading this post, at first I thought that I hadn't done so well because I still wasn't realizing success beyond my wildest dreams.  Aren't we all too hard on ourselves?  However, I did accomplish one key goal - A written plan.  I took a course at our local college where the big final project was a business plan.  And I got an "A" on it, too!  (patting myself on the back).  


So, my friends, here is the original post:


Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."  I suppose that's true.   With 2011 coming quite soon, and with the rush of the Christmas season behind me, I find myself becoming quite introspective. Since I made plenty of mistakes in 2010, I plan to learn from them - might as well make good use of them since they're already made!


One mistake I made was a lack of planning.  I definitely had lots of good intentions but without planning, that's what my dreams remained - good intentions.  Oh, flying by the seat of my ample pants served me well enough but had I converted my 2010 resolutions into written-down plans, success beyond my wildest dreams would not have been so elusive.  

What does all this rumination and introspection mean?  It means that 2011 will be lived on purpose.  With a plan. A well thought out plan.  A written-down plan. Eleanor Roosevelt also said, "In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility."


So, my dear friends, please hold me accountable.  Until next time...  

Paper Plate Baskets

I was sipping my coffee and browsing the internet and came upon this great tutorial by Sarah Hearts for making baskets out of paper plates - the cheap, flimsy kind.  You know, the ones that leak all over and fold in half as soon as you put any food on them.  These baskets are easy peasy and quite addictive.  I thought they would be cute using the Japanese fabric sticky tape that I have in my new Etsy supply shop. 


Here are the baskets that I made - I used some vintage buttons for embellishments, but you could put anything on them, or you could leave them plain and just taped together.  

If you would like to learn to make these, the tutorial is by Sarah Hearts, and she has the tutorial here.   I would love to hear your ideas on different ways to use these cuties.  

Studio Organizing Idea

Hello, my friends!  I just wanted to show you how I organized my t-shirt stash.  I used one of those wire cube shelf things that I got at Target.  I ended up wiring the pieces together - that way it won't come apart on me when I pull out a shirt.  Then I folded the t-shirts in half crosswise, put the sleeves inward and then rolled them up tightly.   I put the shelving on a garage sale coffee table in order to increase the storage.  I plan to put baskets of scraps underneath.  


The colors look so pretty, I hate to use them now.  But this way I can see everything without rummaging through boxes.  It's easy to pull one out without disturbing the others.  

Here is the room in my studio cottage that I have the t-shirts.
Isn't that little handmade built-in cabinet great?

Here are all the t-shirts - aren't they pretty?
The icky shag carpet has to go - that's the plan! 

What creative idea have you come up with for organizing your stash and tools?  

Dinner Plates

My Mom and I had a BIG garage sale last weekend.  It was so fun!  People paid US to haul away our cast off stuff - what a concept.  Our customers were happy because they found a bargain, and we were happy because we divested ourselves of clutter and earned some extra money.

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One of our customers bought all the odd and end plates that we had at 25¢ each, including some of my Mom's Portmerion Botanical Garden odd sandwich plates (now THAT is a bargain!!!).  She explained that when she gives a plate of cookies, she can tell the recipient to keep the plate.  I LOVE that idea - What a wonderful way to bless a friend.

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Now I'm all inspired to make some cookies to put on a beautiful thrifted give-away plate!

Here's a Portmerion Botanic Garden Plate.  Aren't they beautiful?

Lotsa Boxes Tutorial - Again

With the summer craft fair season almost upon us, I thought I would share this post again. These make up fast and easy and are quite addictive!  They are a great extra give-away to include with jewelry sales.  I know my customers love them.

These cute little boxes are a good way to use up all those leftover greeting cards.  I have also picked up greeting cards at yard sales and thrift shops EXTREMELY cheap!  They are lots of fun to make and go together really fast.  I made a ton of them one evening and put them in a big basket in my craft fair booth and gave them away as an extra little gift to each of my customers.

Step 1:  Gather the following tools and supplies:

- Leftover Greeting card

- Quilting ruler

- Glue stick

- Rotary cutter

- Bone folder

Step 2:  Cut the greeting card in half at the fold with the rotary cutter for a nice straight cut.

Step 3:  Cut about a 1/16 inch sliver off one short end and one long end of the inside half.  That way the bottom of the box will fit nicely into the top.

Step 4:  Take the bone folder and score both cards 1 inch (2.5 cm) from every edge and then cut 1 inch (2.5), using the score lines as a guide, on the short ends only to the score lines (see the picture).  If you would like a deeper box, then make your score lines farther away from the edge.


Step 5:  Bend in all score lines on both cards.  Glue the short tabs on the ends inside the longer end tabs.


And now you're done!  You have just made a cute little gift or treasure box from a recycled greeting card.  Anyone have any ideas for what to do with all the leftover envelopes?

An Attempt at being Left-Brained

Having been challenged by the girls at Savvy Blogging, I have proceeded to set some goals.  Being the right-brained creative type, this has not come naturally.  As a matter of fact, my brain now hurts.  However, I love a new challenge, so here goes:

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Goal #1:  Post once a week.  Might as well start with something simple.

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Goal #2:  Start jotting down ideas for new posts so that I can constantly be on the lookout for beautiful and interesting ways to present the subject.

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Goal #3:  Learn one new technical skill each week and pray my brain doesn't explode.

So, there we go.  My underlying goal is to write a blog that will be beautiful, enjoyable and useful - and through the process of posting, begin to connect  with other creative souls.  This is about as left-brained as I know how to be.

Packrats of the World Unite!

Yes, I admit it. I must come clean to clear my conscience. I am a *gasp* packrat, an accumulator of all things transformable. However, I like the synonym for packrat better: gatherer. Somehow that sounds more lofty.

I come from a long line of pack rats. As long as I can remember, my Mom has always had a huge stash of what she calls "raw materials." My Dad, too - only he called his

stuff "good stuff." Everything was fair game to become "raw materials" or "good stuff."

I have loved fabric ever since I was little. It just looked so pretty and felt so nice. My first introduction to recycling beautiful fabric was when I was in junior high school - okay, now I'm telling my age. In the 60's (the LATE 60s, thank you very much). Yep - before recycling was all the rage. My Dad had a GORGEOUS brown wool nubby tweed two-piece suit he didn't want to wear anymore. Well, I just couldn't let that great wool go to wool-tweed-suit heaven, so I cut it up and remade myself a pair of slacks to wear with my favorite dark brown sweater.

So, what is the moral of the story? Things made of fabric are not what they seem. A silk shirt is really a purse lining. A shrunk wool sweater is really a little bitty girl's coat. A linen dress is really a tote..... Get my drift? Now you don't have to feel guilty about saving a cast-off somethings anymore. They have now become "raw materials" that have been *gathered* so as to be ready to be transformed into whatever your mind can imagine. Have fun, my fellow packrat, and gather to your heart's content!

This used to be a T-shirt. Now it is a wrist cuff wallet for runners, walkers and bikers.

This was a wool sweater at one time. I shrunk it down with REALLY hot water and then cut it into circles. They looked kind of plain, so I needle felted the little garden design onto them.

This used to be a ladies cotton blouse - you know, the plain kind of long sleeved shirt. As a kids church teacher, when I needed art smocks to protect my little students' Sunday best frocks, I figured out that I could cut off the collars, whack off the cuffs and put the shirts on backwards. Voila! A kid's art smock. This is the perfected version.

Once upon a time this was a 100% cotton pillowcase. Now it is a sustainable market bag that holds LOTS of groceries - or garage sale finds - or maybe thrift shop treasures that we are *gathering.*

And this is my current favorite. Believe it or not, this used to be a wild and wacky tie-dyed T-shirt. Now it is yarn that is pretty to look at in its current form of a yarn cake. Hmm.... I may never even take it off my shelf, it is so yummy.